Jess Sops was a lively girl, and it came as a great surprise to everyone around her when she turned into a bear. Unusual as it was, as in Australia, there were no bears apart from the few to be found in the zoos.

Jess Sops just disappeared one day and where she had been when she vanished a bear was to be found.

It was an unusual bear in that it wasn’t a recognisable bear as in a grizzly or a panda. Rather Jess Sops had become a bear unique to herself.

When she was first discovered it was apparent Jess was struggling to get the hang of being a bear.

She would sit and preen herself, lick her bits and behave as if she was a cat in a bear’s skin. As you know people can be cruel in their criticism and Jess as a bear had a thin skin and took all criticism of her bearedness to heart.

Breathing deeply, she took to growling, worked hard on a growl that would be both scary and believable. By standing on her hind legs and achieving a height that was always going to be impressive, she sucked in a huge breath and roared her anger at the world. It sent the locals running, Jess Sops was becoming a living breathing bear, one to be reckoned with but more so one to be respected.

The community rallied together, and steps were put in motion to rid the community of the potential Jess Sops presented to them. They ensnared her in a trap, sedated her, transported her to the local zoo, placed her in a cage and waited for her to wake up.

Upon waking Jess Sops roared her dissatisfaction and threw herself on the bars of her cage.

She was decidedly unhappy never thinking people would see her as any sort of danger. After all, Jess Sops had been a lively girl. It came as a surprise to her community as well as herself that she needed to be locked up to protect them as much as herself.

She fell into a dark place, sat in the back of her cage and when she wasn’t sleeping she cried soft bear tears.

She liked being a bear, she liked the instincts that came with being a bear. Living in a cage was not addressing any of her needs. So, she withdrew. The zoo keepers worried about her. They tried to give her foods they thought she would like. She refused, chewing only on some bamboo shoots.

One morning they discovered her cage was open and Jess Sops was gone. Her tracks led to the forest on the edge of town.

They never recaptured her, she roams the bush, well away from humans who had the sense to leave Jess Sops alone, for she had become a lively bear.